• Overview
• Uses
• Side Effects
• Precautions
• Dosing

Cotton is a plant. People use the bark of the root to make medicine. Don’t confuse cotton with cottonseed extract (gossypol).

Cotton is used for nausea, fever, headache, diarrhea, dysentery, nerve pain, and bleeding.

Women use cotton for menstrual disorders and symptoms of menopause. They also use it to bring on labor and childbirth, as well as to expel the afterbirth. Some women use cotton to improve breast milk production.

Despite safety concerns, men sometimes use cotton for birth control. Cotton is also included in some birth control products that are applied vaginally.

How does it work?

Cotton root bark might help stimulate menstrual flow, induce labor and delivery, and act as a male contraceptive.

Insufficient Evidence to Rate Effectiveness for…

• Malaria. Early research suggests that taking a specific preparation (AM-1) containing cotton, Barbados nut, angular winter cherry, and Royal Poinciana by mouth for up to 7 days helps eliminate malaria parasites in people with malaria.
• Menstrual disorders.
• Menopausal symptoms.
• Nausea.
• Fever.
• Headache.
• Diarrhea.
• Bringing on labor and childbirth.
• Male birth control.
• Other conditions.

More evidence is needed to rate the effectiveness of cotton for these uses.